New Internationalist articles from July 2006

New Internationalist archives from July 2006

C[O.sub.2]nned.(climate change, carbon neurtal con)(Editorial)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... I have to make a confession--I love spam. Not the infamous canned luncheon meat, but the stuff that clogs up the world's email inboxes. It fascinates and horrifies me in equal measure. It evolves so rapidly that much of it manages to bypass...

If you go down to the woods today ... there is no easy fix for climate change. The sooner we get to grips with that, argues Adam Ma'anit, the sooner we can ditch the guilt and get active.
July 1, 2006... 'For every problem there is a solution which is simple, clean and wrong.' HL Mencken, journalist and social critic (1880-1956) When British physicist Freeman Dyson wrote in 1972 of his dream of the greening of the galaxy'--in which...

10 things you should know about tree 'offsets'.(THE CARBON CYCLE)
July 1, 2006... 1. Carbon in trees is temporary: Trees provide temporary carbon storage as part of the normal cycle of carbon exchange between forests and the atmosphere. Trees can easily release carbon into the atmosphere through fire, disease, climatic...

Forest fever: the year is 2010. Marcelo Calazans and Renata Valentim explore what it might look like for two very different Brazilians in the new carbon economy.(Fictional work)
July 1, 2006... Monday, 22 April 2010. City of London, England. 6.30am. Hotel Room. The bowl flushes. Water and toilet paper disappear through the sewer. Having a slight cold and perhaps even a temperature, Dr A tucks the weekly market...

Blinded by the light: the offset controversy is not just to do with planting trees. Trusha Reddy inspects the shortcomings behind another bright idea.(South Africa)
July 1, 2006... A dusty tarmac road leads into Guguletu--a sprawling apartheid-created township 20 kilometres in the hazy distance from Cape Town. For Sibiongile Mthembu it is home. A lifelong resident, Mthembu shows me around the council housing projects...

Carbon offsets--the facts.
July 1, 2006... Slicing the carbon pie The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism was supposedly created to help finance sustainable development projects in the world's poorest countries. Many of its supporters argued that it would make it possible...

Uprooted: Timothy Byakola and Chris Lang discover that in the complex chain of relationships in the carbon market, no-one wants to take responsibility when things go wrong. Even if it means people are being driven out of their homes.(Uganda)
July 1, 2006... It all sounds so easy. 'When we decide to fly we can't get around the pollution (C[O.sub.2] and other gases) that this causes, but we can compensate for these emissions by planting and protecting trees that 'soak up' the C[O.sub.2] as they...

Please do not sponsor this tree.(Column)
July 1, 2006... This may seem a strange plea for environmentalists to make, but they do so sincerely. Not because sponsoring a tree is in and of itself a terrible thing to do--what activists are really concerned about is that people sponsor trees and...

C+ be carbon positive! Because climate change is an issue we shouldn't be 'neutral' on.
July 1, 2006... There are many examples of action that achieve real reductions. They range from local campaigns against airport expansion and for better public transport to international movements for global justice. Whether you're a cycling enthusiast or a...

Iran: hear us--not our government!
July 1, 2006... IN January this year, Iran resumed nuclear research and development. Iran's Government explains that this will help the country provide more energy for its 70 million people. But although Iran has not violated its Nonproliferation Treaty...

The language of the arms trade.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Word power 18 Defence n. attack Security n. instability arm-and-a-leg n. (colloq.) cost of a landmine armlock n. debt incurred by developing country buying weapons from the West. administer v. bribe a defence minister to...

New nation falters: Timor-leste; Army revolt drags elected government into crisis.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... TIMOR-LESTE remains in a state of emergency after widespread gang rioting and conflict between security forces rocked the capital of Dili throughout May. An estimated 100,000 residents fled the looting and burning, and at least 20 people have...

Cholera grips Angola.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... SINCE February Angola has been hit by the worst cholera epidemic it has ever experienced. Some 33,000 cases have been reported, with more than 1,200 deaths. The outbreak erupted in Boa Vista, one of the poorest shantytowns that surround...

Tribe unwanted.(Fijian island circus)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... It's any conscientious NI reader's worst nightmare--5,000 mainly white overprivileged US and British eager beavers set out to occupy a Fijian island and dub themselves a unique 'tribe' replete with 'chiefs', 'warriors', 'hunters' and 'nomads'....

Bill Gates.(Biography)
July 1, 2006... Status: Chair & Chief Software Architect of Microsoft Corporation. Reputation: Richest philanthropist in the world. Bully-boy monopolist. Suppose your time is so valuable it's not worth your while to bend down and pick up $10,000 off...

Ama.(Sound recording review)
July 1, 2006... Ama by Yungchen Lhamo (EM/Real World CDRW132 CD) When Yungchen Llamo, a singer now marketed as the 'voice of Tibet', was first introduced to Western audiences, her controllers fudged the political issues surrounding her appearance....

Rise Up.(Sound recording review)
July 1, 2006... Rise Up by Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited (EMI/Real World CDRW136 CD) It takes a special kind of music to be banned not just by one regime, but two. From Zimbabwe, Thomas Mapfumo is a veteran musician whose chimurenga...

Wal-Mart: the high cost of low price.
July 1, 2006... Wal-Mart: the high cost of low price directed by Robert Greenwald Portraying Wal-Mart as the Darth Vader of retail, this film does all it can to champion the voices of those determined to rein in the giant. The company's systematic and...

Heading South.(Movie review)
July 1, 2006... Heading South written and directed by Laurent Cantet 'Welcome to Paradise,' says Ellen to Brenda--the sandy, palm-lined Haitian coast is a welcome summer respite from Boston and her teaching job. It's clean, tranquil and very...

Body Count.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2006... Body Count by Peter Gill (Profile Books, ISBN 13 978 1 86197 923 0) Peter Gill is a campaigning journalist who has worked in India on AIDS-awareness and leprosy projects and whose recent work has focused on the global disaster that is...

A Life Elsewhere.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2006... A life Elsewhere by Segun Afolabi (Jonathan Cape, ISBN 0 224 07602 7) The idea of 'home' is fundamental to these stories by Nigerian writer Segun Afolabi. In 17 vignettes of exile and displacement, his characters share a dread of...

Following Them Home: The Fate of the Returned Asylum Seekers.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2006... Following Them Home: the fate of the returned asylum seekers by David Corlett (Black Inc ISBN 0975076965) As with the title reviewed above, this book provides particular insights into the refugee experience. But its focus is on those...

Highlighting the work of photographers from the Majority World.(Carlos Cazalis )(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... People move up and down the stairs of the 22-storey-high Prestes Maia 911 building in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil. The building lacks proper electricity, water, plumbing and an elevator. In 2003 over 1,500 people, along with the support of the...

Has the UN betrayed us? Whether they are refugees in the Algerian desert or living under Moroccan occupation, Saharawis have been waiting 30 years for their right to self-determination to be realized. Now UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has announced he wants to give up trying to get Morocco to abide by international law. Kamal Fadel can hardly believe his ears.(View from Western Sahara)
July 1, 2006... It seems to be a tradition that at the end of his mandate every UN Secretary-General reneges on the commitment to resolve the Issue of Western Sahara In a just manner. But was it a coincidence that, after his retirement, Perez de Cuellar was...

The happiness conspiracy: what does it mean to be happy in a modern consumer society? John F Schumaker argues that the elusive state has more to do with culture than genetics.
July 1, 2006... 'The trouble with normal Is It always gets worse,' sang the Canadian guitarist Bruce Cockburn back in 1983. Seems he was on to something. Normal doesn't seem to be working any longer. The new Holy Grail is happiness. At every turn are 'how-to'...

Big bad world.(Cartoon)
July 1, 2006... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Interview with Annie Kajir: about stopping international logging in Papua New Guinea's rainforests.(Making Waves)(Interview)
July 1, 2006... The order came from a woman: a person you couldn't ignore. Energy seemed to flow from her--the type of energy that could mobilize people and stop bulldozers. 'You follow me. I want you to see something,' she said. So the law student...

Western worldview.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Does Chris Brazier, bless his heart, really think that he can drop in to an African village three times in two decades (NI 389) and learn all about it? Just think what would happen if I, an African, dropped into Oxford and started asking...

Open window.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Chris Brazier's excellent coverage of an African village (Two decades of change in an African Village, NI 389) has given us a window into one of those places about which we usually hear only generalizations. He helped us see things through the...

Doublespeak.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... The US has once again shown why it is the beacon for democracy, freedom and equality across the world. As reported in Currents, NI 389 the US voted to deny observer rights to two gay rights groups at the UN. It sided with countries with the...

Spirit of enterprise.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Your issue on Trade Justice (NI 388) is excellent. One sentence, however, jarred: 'Textiles are Bangladesh's number one business.' Please do not equate textiles being the number one export with their being the number one business. More than...

Subsidies and employment.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... International trade, globalization, and the WTO are, in the minds of some, solutions to the problems of overproduction. The WTO didn't make poor countries poor, poverty predates globalization. Admittedly, today's international trade could do...

Bottom line.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Call it what you may: WTO, NAFTA, FTAA, IMF... The bottom line is exactly the same: First World nations pillaging Third World nations for the benefit of First World thieves. Vera Gottlieb British Columbia, Canada

Ethical eating.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... It is good to see NI including the fight for animal rights among its other justice concerns (Seriously, NI 388). Other animals are made of flesh, blood and bone, just like human beings, and they share with us the same five senses. Basically,...

Animal testing.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Pulling on heartstrings on both sides of the animal rights issue may be considered beneath logical arguments, and both sides are guilty from time to time (Seriously, NI 388). By no means do I like the idea of animal testing--the idea of...

Important distinctions.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Chris Brazier's piece on Survival International's campaign challenging the use of terms like 'primitive' and 'Stone Age' to describe contemporary tribal peoples raised an important question about Survival's own use of the terms 'tribe' and...

Lowest status.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... It seems to me that when people talk about 'disability' the 'default' button is set to physical disability (Disability in the Majority World, NI 384). Much more emphasis is given to those with physical disability than those with intellectual...

A crack in impunity: Lindsey Collen on two women who have found the road to the truth exceedingly long when it concerns deaths in custody.(Column)
July 1, 2006... 'Isn't it strange,' a friend of mine, Veronique Topize, said the other day at an informal meeting organized by the women's movement, tilting her head philosophically, her long braids moving to one side, 'that, after seven years of struggle for...

Gabon.(Country overview)
July 1, 2006... Gabon has often been described as 'the African Emirates'. This oil-rich state produces about 290,000 barrels of oil a day and boasts sub-Saharan Africa's third-largest reserves--around 2.5 billion barrels. Average per-capita income is 10 times...